Nigeria U17 head coach Akeem Busari says the Flamingos showed courage against defending champions DPR Korea in their 3–1 win at the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, www.aclsports.com reports.
“Everybody would have written Nigeria off, looking at Korea’s record and level of play. In two games, they scored 12 goals and conceded only one, while we won one and lost the other. The team we lost to also lost 6–1 to Korea. But we took our courage and let our girls see that Poland are not a team we need to lose to. Being the first game in the tournament, we were not really up there psychologically. So this was a game we had to prove our point,” Busari said.
He explained that the Flamingos had to adopt a tactical approach to contain the defending champions, whose pace posed a threat.
“We tried to frustrate them away from their tactics because they are quicker to the ball and fast on it. We tried to get our opposing midfielders to stand in front of the centre-backs and maintain a numerical advantage, with endurance and strength. We allowed them to play, and against one of their moves, we got our goal,” he said.
Busari said the victory would boost the team’s morale but warned against complacency ahead of the knockout stage.
“Sometimes, you have to slow down a champion to show that you belong here as well. This is just a mark, and I think we’ll be able to come out of our shell in the second round, whoever we are going to face. Finishing second raises the girls’ morale, but we will not allow complacency. We still have to respect the teams we are going to meet, and equally, they should respect us too, because it’s a knockout stage,” he said.
Image: FIFA
